I do a column like this one from time to time, fighting back against the ‘veil of tears’ approach to the study of Middle Eastern Christians. Some have argued that Christianity is declining in the Middle East, and this allegation is certainly true in some ways and in some places. If Egyptian Christians declined from […]
Month
Category
- Africa (262)
- Asia (1,291)
- Australasia (37)
- Authoritarianism (418)
- Canada (10)
- Culture (616)
- Economy (1,090)
- Agriculture (4)
- Banking (67)
- Boycotts (1)
- Carbon Footprint (6)
- Corporations (56)
- Cryptocurrency (2)
- Debt (21)
- Degrowth (1)
- Democratic Socialism (20)
- Demographic Decline (1)
- Development (26)
- Downward Mobility (1)
- Employment (118)
- Food Insecurity (23)
- Homelessness (18)
- Industry (5)
- Inequality (431)
- Inflation (6)
- infrastructure (11)
- Insurance (2)
- Investment (93)
- Market Crash (12)
- Middle Class (61)
- Monopolies (9)
- Neoliberalism (206)
- Plutocracy (638)
- Poverty (212)
- Poverty (18)
- Regulation (3)
- Retirement (1)
- Sanctions (5)
- Tariffs (5)
- Taxes (38)
- Technology (5)
- Trade (121)
- Weapons sales (8)
- Education (214)
- Energy (1,809)
- Agrovoltaics (4)
- Batteries (54)
- Coal (141)
- Electricity Cost (2)
- Fossil Fuels (338)
- Fracking (50)
- Geothermal (7)
- Green ammonia (5)
- Green Energy (438)
- Green Hydrogen (8)
- Heat Pumps (6)
- Hydroelectric (2)
- Hydroelectric (16)
- Mining (1)
- Natural Gas (109)
- Nuclear Energy (161)
- Petroleum (304)
- Power Grid (12)
- Pumped Hydro (6)
- Solar Energy (453)
- Tar Sands (13)
- Wave Energy (10)
- wind energy (367)
- Environment (2,822)
- Climate Change (1,709)
- Acidification of Oceans (54)
- Agriculture (26)
- Biodiversity (16)
- Climate Refugees (6)
- CO2 (133)
- Dehydration (5)
- Denialism (160)
- Desalinization (5)
- Desertification (163)
- Divestment (2)
- Dust Storms (7)
- Environmental Investment (1)
- Extreme Heat (410)
- Extreme Weather (304)
- Flooding (143)
- Food Supply (3)
- Forests (18)
- Green New Deal (42)
- Green Recycling (2)
- Greenwashing (3)
- Mass Extinction (63)
- Methane (21)
- Net Carbon Zerio (8)
- Nitrous Oxide (2)
- Rainforests (19)
- Rivers (13)
- Sea Level (345)
- Soil Carbon Release (14)
- Super Storms (272)
- wildfires (248)
- Wood Buildings (1)
- Climate Crisis (1,444)
- Drought (303)
- Ecology (2)
- Ecology (12)
- Environmentalism (393)
- Green Transportation (263)
- Ice Melt (145)
- Invasive Species (3)
- Islands (3)
- Oceans (106)
- Oil Spills (8)
- Pollution (234)
- Water (103)
- wildlife (24)
- Climate Change (1,709)
- Europe (1,417)
- Featured (4,503)
- Haiti (1)
- Health (726)
- History (387)
- Human Rights (1,711)
- Apartheid (265)
- censorship (355)
- Death Penalty (32)
- Disappeared (4)
- Displaced and Refugees (590)
- Food Insecurity (33)
- Forced Displacement (1)
- Gay rights (30)
- Genocide (84)
- Human Rights Watch (94)
- Indigenous Rights (1)
- Migrants (4)
- privacy (21)
- Rights (93)
- Slavery and Trafficking (16)
- Starvation (6)
- Torture (104)
- Trans Rights (6)
- Transgender Rights (5)
- Unlawful Imprisonment (112)
- Unlwful Killing (89)
- War Crimes (442)
- War Rape (9)
- International Politics and Economy (2,184)
- Arms Sales (77)
- BRICS (4)
- Corruption (270)
- Crime (133)
- Democracy (341)
- Dissent (473)
- Domestic Terrorism (15)
- Drones (113)
- Espionage (1)
- G20 (1)
- Guns (9)
- Hacking (8)
- Immigration (22)
- Immigration (5)
- Islamophobia (387)
- Migrants (2)
- military (125)
- nationalism (119)
- NATO (41)
- Neocolonialism (1)
- Peace (152)
- Policing (3)
- Politics (318)
- Politics&Culture (22)
- Propaganda (14)
- Race (4)
- Smuggling (1)
- Juan Cole (272)
- Latin America (120)
- media (496)
- Middle East (10,511)
- Arab World (5,407)
- Iran (1,445)
- Israel (1,014)
- Israel/ Palestine (3,968)
- Israel/Palestine (9)
- Kurds (298)
- Red Sea (1)
- Turkey (615)
- Turkiye (142)
- Patriarchy (12)
- racism (479)
- religion (1,558)
- robots (3)
- Romance (1)
- science (178)
- Secular (West) (9)
- Secularism (30)
- Spirituality (22)
- Statelessness (15)
- Stranded Assets (1)
- Surveillance (286)
- Terrorism (1,102)
- Tolerance (6)
- Uncategorized (8,088)
- United Nations (192)
- Urbanization (4)
- US Foreign Policy (1,453)
- US politics (5,678)
- Anti-War Movement (13)
- Campaign Finance (31)
- Censors (22)
- Central Intelligence Agency (63)
- Charity (1)
- Civil Rights (96)
- Congress (82)
- Conspiracy Theories (24)
- Constitution (424)
- Courts (16)
- crime (12)
- Democratic Party (980)
- Democratic Socialists of America (26)
- Domestic Terrorism (20)
- Drone Warfare (27)
- Espionage (124)
- Ethnicities (400)
- Far Right (408)
- FBI (48)
- Federal Government (1)
- Foreign Policy (204)
- Gay Rights (17)
- Guns (97)
- Immigration (259)
- Israel Lobbies (131)
- Marijuana (4)
- Militarization (275)
- National Security State (478)
- Native Americans (42)
- Nuclear arsenal (8)
- penitentiaries (6)
- Pentagon (584)
- Police (43)
- prison reform (10)
- Private Prisons (4)
- Progressive Politics (15)
- Puerto Rico (30)
- Religious Right (16)
- Reproductive Choice (69)
- Republican Party (3,238)
- South Asian-Americans (1)
- Supreme Court (133)
- USAID (1)
- Voter suppression (36)
- Whistleblowers (7)
- Xenophobia (9)
- Veterans (36)
- Voting Rights (16)
- War (644)
- White Supremacists (242)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (577)
- workers (237)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (220)
Featured
Christmas and Sufism: Rumi on the Nativity and the Christ Within
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The great medieval Muslim mystic and poet, Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273), interpreted the birth of Jesus as an allegory of the soul. Rumi was born in Balkh in northern Afghanistan, but his family fled the Mongol invasions and settled in Konya in what is now Turkey. Rumi was a refugee […]
With Trump leaving, Syrian Kurds seeking Support of Damascus, Moscow against Turkey
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Secretary of Defense James Mattis resigned on Thursday in part because he felt his president was violating the code of the Marines, that no man should be left behind. In abruptly pulling out of Syria, Trump was abandoning the Syrian Kurds, the only allies the US could find in the […]
Putin: ISIL Defeated; “Right” for “unneeded” US Military to Depart Syria
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sarah Sanders, Trump’s spokesperson, alleged that the Russians are unhappy with Trump decision to get out of Syria. As usual, Ms. Sanders is building sandcastles in the sky with no foundation. BBC Monitoring reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at a news conference on Dec. 20 on Rossiya 1 […]
Mattis was no Shining Knight: From backing Yemen War to Whitewashing Khashoggi Murder
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment): Official Washington was horrified at the resignation on Thursday of Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who wrote Trump a letter (below) that said “Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right […]
A New Middle East: Winners and Losers from Trump’s Abrupt Syria Withdrawal
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump shook up the Washington establishment and Middle Eastern and world politics on Wednesday by abruptly announcing by Tweet a full and immediate withdrawal of US military forces from northeast Syria. Trump’s motives for what he does are never easy to fathom. He may have been driven by a desire […]
What did Flynn Know about Russian ties to Trump and When did he Know it?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Disgraced former National Security Adviser to Donald Trump, Michael Flynn, had his sentencing postponed until March on Tuesday after Judge Emmett Sullivan raked him over the coals for lying to the FBI in the White House and for intimating that he was not really guilty and had been entrapped by […]
Why Airbnb is not backing Down on Boycotting Israeli Squatter Housing in Palestinian West Bank
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The living space- sharing company Airbnb on Monday denied an allegation by the Israeli tourism minister that it had suspended its delisting of apartments in Israeli squatter settlements (which are Jewish-only) in the Palestinian West Bank. Airbnb has to boycott the Israeli squatter settlements because they are illegal. The European […]
Global Islam and Australia: Why Recognition of ‘West Jerusalem’ Capital is bad news for Israel
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The decision of the Australian government of PM Scott Morrison to recognize “West Jerusalem” as the capital of Israel but to hold off moving its embassy there until there is a peace settlement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might look on the face of it like a victory for Israel. It […]
© 2026 All Rights Reserved